We at greenupgrader believe being Green doesn’t have to be difficult and it shouldn’t feel overwhelming. I think we can all agree that we, as a community, need to take better care of the earth, our home. What’s not as easy to agree on is how to go about it. Instead of telling you how to live, we are going to provide you with options that can help you live a Greener life. We want to make sustainable living accessible to everyone, because we believe that if everyone makes at least a small change, the impact will be big!
To help you along your journey to being Green, we will bring you interesting and novel products and ideas that can help you live Greener. The topics we feature will vary levels of eco-friendliness, from Light Green products that only offer minor improvements, to Dark Green items that represent a paradigm shift in sustainable living.
Meet the greenupgrader team…
By day Matt is a humble public servant but by night he is the publisher of gUP, a DIY fiend, social media monger, political junkie and eligible bachelor.
He hasn’t always been fighting the Green fight.
“…not too long ago I was hanging out with my 5 year old niece and I asked her what she wanted to do for the day. She said she wanted to go down to the park and pick up litter because it was making mother nature sad. I always talk to her about the importance of being kind to mother nature but I realized that besides not littering, I did very little, partly because I felt overwhelmed by weight of ‘Going Green’. The simplicity in her approach made me realize that ‘Going Green’ starts with action, and inspired me to start my journey to a more sustainable life.”
Doug is in perpetual motion and a self-proclaimed adventure junkie, that has had a longtime love affair with the great outdoors.
“I love being a part of the active world. The stuff that blows my hair back is adventure (all shapes and sizes), photography, mountaineering, Muay Thai, and seeing natural beauty in all its forms. The living earth is the framework on which I build my life and free time. My ideal trip would be BASE jumping at Sotano de Las Golandrinas in Mexico (closest I could come to skydiving through the jungle!). I work towards keeping it real, green, and healthy. ”
Doug is the co-founder of gUP, and although he didn’t know what a blog was until a couple months after we stared on, his wit, taste and passion for all things nature are unparallel.
Check out Doug’s latest adventure: Biking across the Amazon
Samantha spends a lot of time in town coffee shops reading about all things green. In between her Internet and caffeine binges, she likes converting these ideas into action, be it by working at her organic farmshare, shopping locally, or serving on her town’s Energy Committee. She believes strongly that a sustainable lifestyle should be fun, easy, and affordable for everyone. Living green shouldn’t be about sacrifice, but rather about avoiding unchecked exploitation of our resources.
Samantha graduated college with a double major in Environmental Studies and Architecture. Her passions include good food, good design, and the Boston Red Sox. Her favorite shade of green is dark moss.
I dig singlespeed bicycles, simple living, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyle design, slacklining, bouldering, and baking with sourdough.
We just finished our own family experiment in lifestyle design, living for almost six years in one 8 by 15 foot room. We hauled all of our water, used a sawdust toilet, had a solar shower for washing up, and we had two unassisted births during that time (one under the stars, and one in a tipi). Don’t try it. (Just kidding- you’ll never truly understand cabin fever until you’ve experienced 2 adults, two kids, and a cat in 120 square feet, during single digit temps in January!)
I love good food; Colorado peaches are my all-time favorite. I really enjoy conversations with three year olds. I love being in the wilderness with my family; it feels like home. I love positive thinking and big audacious dreams. I like to skip rope, and yes, I do have a tiny rubber chicken (vegan) that lives with my flash drive.
Becky Striepe is an indie crafter living in Atlanta, GA with her husband, two cats, and her trusty sewing machine.
She runs a crafty business: Glue & Glitter, sewing handmade house wares from vintage and revamped materials. Her mission is to use existing materials in products that help folks reduce their impact without feeling deprived.
Cristina has been eco-minded ever since her (environmental education) preschool days. After studying International Relations and Global Environment, she now works to get the word out about sustainable living and green products with the Green Home Huddle. She is passionate about making green accessible to anyone and everyone, getting outside as much as possible, and working toward sustainable solutions, both large and small.
Sara has made a career in the organic foods industry which has helped shape her understanding and passion for Green living. She has her masters degree in photography and bachelors in fine arts. “… I draw inspiration from yoga, alternative and holistic therapies, world travel, and making my own recipes. Discovering unique and intelligent green alternatives and delivering them to our readers has brought me great satisfaction. I think anyone can go green, even if it’s one step at a time.”
Danielle is the Associate Operations Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, specializing in the use of social media and other tools to engage activists to protect wildlife. She loves research and science and has always had a passion for animals. Danielle is NWF’s lead voice on the social web, where she tracks emerging trends and finds the most effective ways to engage individuals for wildlife causes.
She enjoys helping other organizations implement social media.She graduated from Christopher Newport University with a BA in technical writing. Danielle spends her spare time reading and enjoying the outdoors, far away from the computer screen.
Paula is a working mother of 2 wonderful kids, a toddler and a teenager, who wants to leave the planet in the best possible condition for her kids. Her main focus in life is her family. She believes that living green is a lifestyle, not just an idea. Paula thinks that everyone can live a greener life through a series of tiny steps. It doesn’t have to be one giant leap — just tiny steps towards improvement by many people can really make a huge impact on a global scale.
She is intrigued with the idea of upcycling art, how a change in perspective can take an object from the trash pile and move it into the treasure pile. She is also very interested in sustainable living for average families and simple ways to live greener lives. She wants to teach her children environmental responsibility and respect for the planet.
Most of Alissa’s childhood was spent frolicking under high-voltage power lines in a suburban subdivision of Rochester, New York. Ironically, the procession of behemoth towers flanking the neighborhood formed a greenbelt, linking her backyard to a majestic expanse of woodlands that cradled a meandering stretch of the Irondequoit Creek. There, serenaded by the melodic hum of 110 kilovolts of electricity, Alissa began her lifelong love affair with the natural world. As an Intern Architect she has fused her zest for nature with a passion for design, striving to create healthy and sustainable built environments.
Alissa received a BS in Biotechnology focusing in Environmental Studies from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and a Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado in Denver, where she is currently studying to become a LEED Accredited Professional. When she isn’t attempting to save the world, Alissa enjoys thrashing it on a snowboard with her husband, Mitch.
Beth is a wandering writer interested in all things low-impact and planet-friendly. Her sustainable scribbling can also be read on The Ecospheric Blog and in Healing Path Magazine, a holistic living publication distributed throughout Colorado, where she currently resides. Beth is interested in (and writes about) unique green businesses that are doing their part to make a difference, as well as urban farming, upcycling, alternative transportation (a.k.a. I pledge allegiance to my bike), and her secret dream: off-the-grid living.
Liz Grotyohann is co-founder of cosa verde, a marketplace connecting artists that create eco-friendly, handmade goods with like-minded shoppers. Liz’s “official” background is in graphic design, with a specialization in environmental and museum exhibition design, but she’s a maker at heart, and has an overwhelming urge sometimes to get away from the computer and use her hands… and power tools. Liz loves making something new from something old, and she spends her nights building found-object assemblages and shadowboxes, refinishing furniture and finding new ways to recycle all the papers on her desk.
John R. Platt is a journalist, humorist, activist and publicist specializing in environmental issues, entrepreneurship and new technologies. He founded Extinction Blog, the world’s first news source devoted entirely to endangered species, which is now published by Plenty Magazine. He has written for RiverWired, Kyoto Planet, Today’s Engineer, Experience.com, and numerous other publishers. He can be found online at JohnRPlatt.com.
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